Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14 and 15, we'll read
this together. The Scripture says, How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause
He is the mediator of the New Testament, the New Covenant,
that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgression
that were under the First Testament, First Covenant, They which are
called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. The title of the message tonight
is The Great Cause. The Apostle says, for this cause,
for this cause, Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. Now the apostle having manifest
that the first covenant, the law of Moses, and all of those
ordinances contained in that Old Testament covenant of divine
service, such as the tabernacle, the furniture, and all of the
work of the priests, were only a figure only a picture, a pattern
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that those gifts and sacrifices that
those priests had offered year after year after year, never
made the worshipers perfect. Otherwise, they would have no
need of sacrificing them again and again. But Christ, the Apostle says,
Christ is the fulfillment of these Old Testament types and
pictures. The great, the tabernacle, that
tent that they worshiped in in the Old Testament was nothing
more than a picture, a pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ who
was promised to come. He's the greater tabernacle.
He's the greater place of worship. He's the only place where sinners
can meet with God. Only in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He came in His perfect humanity,
and the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice
for sin. And after he offered himself
to God once, the Scripture says in verse 12 that he offered himself,
his own blood, he entered into the holy place, having obtained,
obtained eternal redemption. What does that mean? He got it!
He did it! The Lord Jesus Christ entering
in, offering his own blood for the sin of his people, obtained
eternal redemption. So then, in verse 13, Verse 13,
if these patterns, if these Old Testament ordinances gave comfort,
look at this in verse 13, it says, for if the blood of bulls
and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling of the unclean sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh. He's saying, look, if these Old
Testament sacrifices, if they sufficed, If they were sufficient
at that time to comfort God's people, and they were, they were
meant to show Christ was coming, to comfort His people and testify,
Christ is coming, Christ is coming. So every time they offered that
sacrifice, it was saying, Christ is coming, Christ is coming.
And they were satisfied with that. They were content to believe
and trust in that. And if these old sacrifices,
these old ordinances, if they encourage and strengthen the
believer, listen, verse 14, how much more, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, listen, purge your conscience. From what? Dead works. Dead works to serve
the living God. Believer, does your conscience
cause you grief and pain? Does your sin and unbelief and
constant struggle with the flesh, does that weigh down your soul? Behold then, How much more did
Christ purge our sins and wash our conscience from dead works,
seeing then that He is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. And so then, if this is to purge
our conscience, what does this cause us to do? It moves us to
serve the living God. if our conscience is hindered,
if our conscience is hindered by our sins and by our unbelief. It is only when the conscience
is purged that we are able then to serve God and obey God and
love Him like we desire to do, believe Him like we desire to
do. Only if the conscience is purged of dead works, What hinders us, believer, from
our service to God the most? What hinders us? It is our conscience that causes
us to be hindered. And so with this
motive in mind, in order to encourage you to continue in the faith,
I want you to notice three things tonight, so that may the Lord
Jesus Christ, even tonight, purge your conscience from dead works.
Why? So that you may serve the living
God, so that you may love Him, serve Him, and honor Him as you
desire to do, believer. And so with this in mind, I want
us to notice three things tonight that might give us encouragement,
comfort, and strength. First of all, I want us to know
the cause of Christ's offering, the cause of it. He says, and
for this cause He is the mediator. of the new covenant. Second of
all, I wanted to see the means, the means of this redemption,
which is in the same verse. It says that by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgression that were under the first testament.
And then thirdly, the result, they which are called might receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. First of all, the cause. The
cause of Christ's mediatorial office in the New Covenant. Now,
the New Covenant is called in Hebrews 13, 20, the everlasting
covenant. The everlasting covenant. Even
because it was not made of men, but of God. When we make a covenant,
it is obviously made in time, isn't it? If I were to make a
covenant with you tonight, it would be a man-made covenant.
It would be a man-made covenant based on man-made promises, based
on man-made power to fulfill the covenant. But this covenant
that Jesus is the mediator of is no covenant of man, it is
a covenant of God. Therefore, it is an eternal covenant. An eternal covenant. This covenant
of God was made by God, with God, from eternity. God in eternal counsel made a
covenant with Himself, and listen, I want you to know the cause
of this covenant, so that your conscience might be purged, so
that you might serve your God in faith and love to Christ.
Listen, this covenant was made by God in eternity, not for your
sake. I want that to sink in. This covenant was not for your
sake. It was for God's. Well, I'm not trying to give
you my opinion. Let's go and see it together.
It's in Ezekiel. It's in the Old Testament, Ezekiel
chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36. This is one
of those places where the same covenant in Jeremiah chapter
31, the same covenant that he mentions here in Hebrews chapter
8 and 9, is also found in Ezekiel 36. And God tells us before He even
displays the covenant to the people of Israel, He gives them
the cause. The root cause of this covenant,
verse 22. Therefore, say unto the house
of Israel, thus saith the Lord. So you know it's not my word,
this is his word. Thus saith the Lord. I do not this for your sakes,
O house of Israel. But for mine holy name's sake,
which you have profaned among the heathen, whither you went,
and I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among
the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them, and the
heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. and then he begins to tell them
of the covenant of grace. He begins to tell them what this
covenant It is a covenant of mercy. It is a covenant of grace. It is a covenant which God said,
I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of
all countries. I will sprinkle clean water upon
you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, from all
your idols. Will I cleanse you? A new heart
will I give you. A new spirit will I put within
you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh. and I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep
My judgments and do them." You see, this is a covenant of grace. God said, I'm going to do this,
but I want you to know who I'm doing this for. I'm doing it
for Me. It's My covenant, and I'm doing
it for My own namesake. This covenant has been rooted
not in men, although we are the objects of this covenant, although
we are included in this covenant of mercy. Believers in Christ,
you're included in this, but I want you to know it's not for
your sake He did it. You see, what causes our conscience
to be defiled is you think it's for your sake. You think it's
based on something you've done, something you're doing, something
you're gonna do. It's not based in you, it's based
in God. God said, I'm gonna do this for
my sake, for my sake. And although we're objects of
this, it is rooted in the cause and purpose is rooted in the
glory and the praise of God in the salvation of the most undeserving
wretches ever lived on the face of God's earth. It's for the glory of God. Now
then, go to the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, again we're
dealing with this New Covenant, the cause of the New Covenant. What is the cause? What is the root cause of the
New Covenant? Of Christ being made the Mediator
of the New Covenant. Our Lord God said, the Apostle
said of God the Father, he said, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 3. who had blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Listen,
here's the root cause, to the praise of the glory of His grace. You see, the Father in love,
a covenant love, chose a people before the foundation of the
world, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, And
it was a covenant purpose of God to make them holy, to make
them His sons, not by works or merits of their own, but by Jesus
Christ, who should come and offer Himself as a spotless sacrifice
for sin, that He should obtain righteousness on their behalf. It is a covenant of God in grace
that He was to be the mediator. Even because He was from eternity
set up for this purpose. To be the mediator in order to
reconcile us to God. You see it was necessary because
we were born in sin. When we were born, we were born
in sin, incapable of saving ourselves. Yet God, before we even came
into the world, set His Son to be the Mediator, the Redeemer. And Christ came to make His people
holy. That was His purpose. That He should stand between
us and God. Our sin separated us from God. So then Christ came to reconcile
us to God. You see, God created man perfect. He gave man all the treasures
of His creation and demanded that man had a covenant with
man. And as long as Adam fulfilled
that covenant, he had fellowship with God. But what happened when
Adam failed, when he disobeyed God? We were separated from God. When he sinned, Adam was judged
and condemned to spiritual death, and this death passed upon all
of us. We were born dead in trespasses
and sins. Therefore, man needed one who
was able to reconcile us to God. One who could, in our stead,
satisfy the justice of God that we could by no means satisfy.
We needed one to provide righteousness for us that we could not provide
for ourselves. You see, we could never provide
the righteousness God demands by the law. The law was never meant to save
anyone. The law was only meant to expose
sin. And that's all the law can do.
All the law can do is tell me I'm a sinner. All the law can
do is say, Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart. And all that does is expose
me that I've not done it. I'm guilty. I'll let you in on
a secret. So are you. See, the law was never meant
to do anything to save us. So by the obedience of the law,
the scripture says, shall no flesh be justified in the sight
of God. And according to this covenant
of grace, God in sovereign, free, eternal love said His Son to
be the mediator. That He should, by His death
and by His blood, accomplish redemption. Accomplish redemption. And according to that covenant
of grace, the Spirit of God was to be sent into all the world
to call out those elect, to call out those people that God purposed
to save. All that God purposed to save
in that covenant in eternity, all that Christ died for at Calvary,
the Holy Spirit is going to save. He is going to get them. Why? Because it's God's covenant.
It's God's covenant. But what is the ground and root
and foundation of this covenant? What is the primary purpose of
such a covenant? For the praise of the glory of
His grace. In this chapter in Ephesians,
I just read you a portion of it, but no less than three times
it tells us that. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Why does God have a covenant?
To the praise of the glory of His grace. So not for your sake,
O house of Israel, do I this, but for my own holy name's sake,
I will sanctify my great name. And although this covenant of
grace was made by God in the sacred trinity of his persons,
made for men to save sinful men by grace and by the blood of
Christ, listen, the whole purpose of this was for God's glory.
The reason for God's doing anything is for His own glory. I want you to get this. God is
selfish and He's right to be so. Because everything He does is
right. Let God be true and every man
a liar. God be true. Everything God does
is for the glory of His grace. And this is what Paul meant in
1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30, that God made Christ to be
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What reason,
Paul, did God make Christ to be those things for us? So that
no flesh should glory in His sight. That's why. God made Christ to be all these
things that all the praise and glory and honor and blessing
for salvation should belong to God alone. You listen, if God
saves you, it's because God did it. Who gets the glory for salvation? Who gets the glory? You listen,
Jesus Christ was made a mediator of the new covenant for the glory
of God. What did He say in John chapter
17? He said, Father, glorify me with the glory which I had
with Thee from the beginning. Why? I finished the work that
You gave me to do. So what's this all about? Glory! Praise, honor, blessings, power
belong to God and God alone. Scripture says, for by grace
you are saved. You are saved. You listen. It
is by grace, unmerited favor of God that you are saved. You
didn't do anything to earn it. You didn't do anything to obtain
it. And you sure as heck can't do anything to keep it. It's
all about God doing something for us that we could never do
for ourselves. Therefore, God gets all the glory. He gets all the praise. For by
grace you are saved through faith." Ah, preacher, there's faith.
You see, I've got to believe, I've got to make my... No, faith,
that not of yourselves. Faith is not of yourself. It, faith, is a gift of God,
not of works. Not of works. Why not, Paul? Why not of works? Lest any man
should boast. You see what the cause of all
things is? The glory of God. For we are created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained, that we
should walk..." Do you not get a sense that this is all about
God? It's all about Him. Have you been saved by the grace
of God through faith in Christ alone? Have you received Christ
and been given the power to become the sons of God? Were you born again of blood
or of the will of the flesh or were you born of the will of
God? The only truly saved people are born of the will of God.
Now there are a bunch of people claiming to be born of their
own will. People claim to be born of their own will. If you're
born of your will, you're not born of God's will. Scripture plainly tells us those
that are born again are born of the will of God. I'm born
again because God has willed it so. God willed it so. If your salvation
has come by anything you have done, any decision you have made,
any work of the flesh, any work of your obedience, any work of
some other man, listen, you have something then to brag about.
If anything came from you, then you've got something to brag
about. But you listen, you won't bring
that mess to God. You might have something to brag
about among us, but you won't have anything to
brag about for God. Even because salvation by the will of man and by the
works of man is only an illusion. It's a vain hope, an empty covenant
made by yourself, for yourself, and with yourself. See, I don't want a covenant
based on myself. A covenant would be worthless. I need a covenant that God made
by Himself, with Himself, for Himself, that includes me. That's
what I need. That's what I need. If this is your covenant, your
covenant's one of will and works, then I pray that God would expose
that covenant to be nothing but what it is, a refuge of lies. A refuge of lies. And all who are built upon a
refuge of lies, God will in the end destroy. But listen, all
who are built on Jesus Christ, you have a sure refuge. Why? Because your refuge is not
based on you. It's based on Him. It's based
on the glory of God. And all who are built upon Jesus
Christ, we desire to go no place else. Isn't that right? If you're
built on Christ, any place else you want to go? Anybody else
you want to trust? Not us. Not us. Behold, I lay
inside a stone, a foundation stone, a tried corner stone. He that believeth shall not make
haste. We're not going anywhere. Why? God put us on that stone in eternity. And we're not going anywhere.
We know this, that salvation is of the Lord. That our salvation redounds only and always to the
glory of God who purposed it, the glory of Christ who accomplished
it, and the glory of the Holy Spirit that regenerated us and
keeps us in it. All glory then belongs to God. So why was Christ made a mediator
of this new covenant? First cause, the glory of God. That's why. You're in this covenant,
you know that God did it for himself. God did it for himself. The first cause of Christ's mediatorship
was the glory of God. And you listen, whenever He's
gathered all of those people that He chose, all of those people
He redeemed in that covenant, you know what's going to happen
when the last one believes? God's going to wind it up. It's
all be over. When that last one comes in,
He redeems, God will come and at that time, You know what song
we're going to sing? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
and has redeemed us to God out of every kindred and nation,
tongue and people. What is our song? Blessing and
honor and glory and power be to Him that sitteth on the throne.
That will be our song in heaven. Why? Because it all redounds
to the glory of God. Is this your song? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy great name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's
sake. You know where mercy and truth
meet? Only in Jesus Christ. Paul said, as God commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, He hath shined in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. Where is the glory of God? It
is in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's the face that all
His people look to for salvation. So then, let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. What is the wicked's
way and the unrighteous man's fault? It is salvation by works. That's the wicked man's way.
Salvation by merit, trying to earn God's favor. That is a wicked
way. It is an unrighteous way. Forsake
that. Why? Because Christ has finished
it all. Why would you try to merit something
Christ has already finished? That would be to spit in the
face of God's sacrifice. You see, I like Paul when he
said this, all that I treasured up, I count as dung. All my works, all my righteous,
and all that I thought would get me to heaven, he says, I
count that as manure. that I might win Christ and be
found in Him. I don't want any of that. I want
Christ. And let us return unto the Lord,
He will abundantly pardon. Listen, sinner, no matter the
abundance of your sin, no matter the greatness of your ruin, and
the hopelessness of your condition, The abundance of God's grace
is greater than all our sin. You know, I see that if you are
named in this covenant, if God has called you to life and faith
in Christ, let this be the thing that purges
your conscience. God did it for himself. and we are merely the recipients
of grace. Did it for himself. Now secondly, the second cause,
the first cause of the covenant of grace was the glory of God.
He said, Father, I've glorified thee on the earth. I've finished
the work you've given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me with
the glory I had with thee from the beginning. And as a result
of his glorifying God, When Christ glorified God, get this, He saved
us. He saved us. He was able then
to save us, to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath
given Him in the covenant of grace. So then all who have believed
on Jesus Christ, let us see the cause of Christ as our mediator
is this, that He should purge your conscience from dead works. Behold the glory of God in that
he purposed through Christ our mediator to purge your conscience. The believer in Christ is by
the power of grace and the Holy Spirit become a new creature.
You that believe in Christ, you're a new creation. a new creature
in Christ. He created something that wasn't
there before. That is how you are now willing
to believe. Now that you are willing to receive
Him only because He gave you a new heart, a new nature. This is the first fruits of Christ's
righteousness created in us. And so then, believer, you may
say this with all assurance, with thy righteousness on, I am as holy as the Holy One. That's what he did. But this
is not our experience, is it? No. We know this by faith, that we
are saved and righteous before God through Christ. We know that
by faith. But that's not our experience in our walk, is it?
That's because we still have this old man, this old man of
flesh that hangs about our neck. It is called the old nature.
Jesus said, that which is born of spirit is spirit, and that
which is born of flesh is what? Flesh! Therefore we are two in
one. We have two natures in one body. And this causes a great conflict
within us. It causes us great trouble. The Spirit lusting against the
flesh and the flesh against the Spirit. So, we identify then
with Paul and say, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But because of this flesh, we
are unable then to do what we would. What would you do, believe
me? How would you live? How would you live, believer?
You and I would live holy. We would desire to be like Christ.
We would desire to serve our God in every capacity of our
life. And yet the old man is dragging
us, constantly pulling us backward. We begin to feel our guilt, our
sin. We are cast down to the earth. We feel our inability, our strength,
and our weakness. But behold the remedy. The remedy
for this cause, God knowing our weakness, God knowing our proneness
to sin says this to us, Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. I'm glad it doesn't say he was. Aren't you? I'm glad that the
Lord Jesus Christ is right now, presently, mediating this covenant. Making sure it's fulfilled. Making sure every one of His
people get to glory. He is mediating this covenant. Therefore, look to Him. Look to Him. Cry to Him. Plead to God by Him. And listen, God will purge your
conscience. From what? Dead works. Why do
we count all our works? They're dead works. They're not
capable of saving me. Don't look to them. They're not
worth looking at. Isn't that the first thing we
want to do though? We do something that you think is a good work?
You turn around and say, well, look at that. No, it's dead.
Ain't nothing good about that. May God purge me of the best
things that I ever did. Because they're dead works. Believers in Christ do not look
within. Look to the Mediator. Look to
Him. And by looking to Him, your conscience
can be purged. Why? Because of His death. You see, my sins that deserved
death have received a just payment at Calvary. When Jesus Christ
died for my sins, God's justice did not overlook my sin. God's
justice paid for it. Christ paid for it. The justice
of God was poured out on your mediator. and therefore your
sins that now seem to drag you down, behold, they should be
purged from your conscience. They're dead works, they're not
worthy to be looked at, but Christ hath paid them. Confess thy sins,
and He is what? Faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. Why? Because it was never dependent
on you. It was always Him. It was always
Him. He did it. He did it all. The
means of this was by His death for the transgression of the
sins. The holy justice of God now being
satisfied, the law now being fulfilled, Believer, does your
conscience then prick your soul and cause you to weep? Does Satan
at thy right hand seem ready to resist you? And may God, the
Holy Spirit, even now cleanse your conscience, for Christ has
already paid the penalty. He's already paid the debt. The Scriptures are very clear.
Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again. Who then shall separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? Seeing we were in a covenant
promise from eternity. God purposed your salvation for
His own glory. Christ came and accomplished
your salvation. The Spirit of God came and applied
your salvation. And now you are still continuing
the faith by Him and He shall deliver you unto glory for Himself. Why then are you so pricked in
your conscience? How many times do you say, well,
I'm just not good enough in the service of God? Nope. You're not. In Christ, you are. Now then, go and serve your God with a clear conscience, free
from dead works, to serve the living God. And what then is
the result of this mediation? Listen, go back, I'll just show
you this real quickly. They which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. They which are called by the
Holy Spirit might receive, not only believe it, but receive
it. See, this is the work of the
church. The work of the church is to take the covenant promises
of God, which is for the glory of God, and testify of it to
sinners. And God the Holy Spirit will
call His people, and they will all receive what He promised. See, God is no liar. Anything
and everything God promised His people, they will receive. Why? How do I know that? Because it's
all based on the glory of God. If one sinner that God chose
and Christ redeemed was not to enter into glory, the glory of
God would suffer loss. And that just ain't gonna happen.
That just ain't gonna happen. May God even now cleanse your
conscience of dead works. Why? For this cause. Salvation
is for the glory of God. Salvation is accomplished by
Christ for every one of His elect and every one of them will receive.
Every one of them will be called and everyone will receive what
God promised. Eternal inheritance. Eternal inheritance. Why then
do you fear? Why do you doubt? If you do, it's because you're
looking within and not without. See, Christ is the mediator of
the new covenant. We should have our conscience
purged. You know what feels good when
you get washed? It's refreshing. It's uplifting. so you may serve your God. Pray
God will bless this to you. Stand will be dismissed and pray.